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Review: XBLIG: Neo Terra

This review originally appeared on XBLARatings.com.
When I saw the first screen shots of this game, and even as I loaded it up, I rolled my eyes and thought it was going to be a gigantic time waster. I am glad I actually spent time with the Neo Terra.

The game play is fairly straight forward – as time ticks up, each planet gains resources. The resources are translated in to ships that you can send out to try and take over other planets. If too many of your ships are out when your planet gets attacked, your planet can get taken over by an enemy.

Now imagine all of that, playing out in real time (turn based strategy is for the weak!), and it only taking a matter of seconds to win or lose a planet. A battle can last less than a minute, or several minutes. And that’s what I love about this game.

Every time you play it’s a new experience, even if the game looks and feels limited. It’s very straight forward, but it is a game of skill, not just who can hammer the X button faster. It’s about knowing if your planets need reinforcements, if the enemy has a planet that is weak and can be easily overtaken. It’s about looking at the entire screen at once and knowing where to send your troops.

Graphically the game has some nice backdrops, but the ship sprites are a little juvenile. The sound suffers a lot from a very repetitive selecting sound being about the only sound you hear, but can be easily blocked out if you have multiple people in your living room battling for galactic supremacy.

If you’re home alone, you may want to put on some music while you take on the five levels of artificial intelligence the game has to offer. From “Very Easy” to “Insane” the game offers a challenge for everyone. You can also take on the computer with different game modes, including a “capture the flag” like mode where the point is to overtake a planet at the centre of the map – all the while your opponent could be taking over your planets, thus having a larger fleet to send towards the “flag planet.”

While there isn’t much else going on in the game, it’s really all you need from Neo Terra. The game’s $1 price tag is a statement to that fact: this game is intended to be fast paced, hectic fun, and nothing more. And it achieves that in a way that is incredibly entertaining.

If the developers were to take this game and build a story line around it, it would be an instant buy for me. Battle it out in a “quick match” much like you have right now, then take a few moments to let a story unfold? A well deserved break from the frantic game play would be an absolutely perfect formula for Neo Terra 2. Here’s hoping!